All Hallows Eve (and a little morning)

Elanor and I started off the day with these pumpkin pancakes 

and the Pandora Halloween station. We had fun dancing to "Thriller", "Monster Mash", "Ghostbusters", etc. 

We were still feeling a little lazy and sluggish from being sick earlier, so we did not do much during the day. When, Tyler got home from class, we carved our pumpkins.

We did not have a ton of time, so they were not super cool like previous years pumpkins. Elanor did not want to carve her pumpkin this year for some reason. She seemed to think it would hurt the pumpkin. So she painted hers and throughly enjoyed it.

After pumpkin carving, we ate dinner and then headed over to my aunt's house so Elanor could trick-or-treat there and show everyone her costume. We then headed back to our neighborhood and got back a little late to find that our trick-or-treating group had already started. However, some other friends also came over and trick-or-treated with us.

The Christiansen's (Peter was a dwarf from "The Hobbit" and their little boy was Han Solo)

Elanor loved trick-or-treating! She had fun running from house to house and saying "trick-or-treat". Running, not walking mind you. 

We did finally catch up with the rest of our friends:

 

Eli and Elanor. Elanor loves him so much.

Jude, Elanor and Eli. 

Jude. Isn't he adorable?

We had a fun Halloween and Elanor is already talking about what she is going to be next year.

The Weekly Photo

Trick-or-treating 

(the only picture we have where it is not completely dark out)

More Halloween pictures will be up tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

I am so excited about Elanor's Halloween costume this year. I actually made it and it actually looks good! I mentioned on here before that Elanor was going to be Little Red Riding Hood and I have been prepping for this costume since August (I bought the material and supplies back then) and I actually finished the costume in plenty of time. I made a corset type vest, a skirt, apron and of course a little red cloak.  My inspiration for this costume were the traditional Norwegian folk clothes such as this:

I went this route because I wanted a very old-fashioned, traditional feel and something that Little Red Riding Hood might have actually worn (though the story is from Germany, not Norway). I also used this cloak tutorial, but I lined the cloak, and used a button and elastic instead of velcro. 

When we were back in Oregon two weeks ago, we took Elanor into my parent's forest for a little photo shoot/walk/picnic--she pretended like she was going to "Grandma's house" the whole time.

I could not get Elanor to slow down. She was bound and determined to get to "Grandma's house", obviously she would not have stopped to chat with a wolf.

I could not keep up!

We stopped for a sunny, pleasant picnic.

This hair style is my favorite!

A very brief video of Little Red Riding Hood in the forest:

We found a ton  of leaves and Elanor wanted to play in them, of course!

In these two pictures, you can see some of the details of the costume:

 The cloak exterior is corduroy, and the interior is cotton. The vest is canvas, and gave the outfit the rustic feel I wanted. The skirt is some sort of felted wool material. I am not completely sure, as I found about 2 yards of it at a vintage shop for only $2! The little apron is just some white cotton fabric I already had and I added the eyelet trim, and the band with the ribbon. This ribbon is traditional Norwegian ribbon and it is so beautiful! I ordered the ribbon from an Etsy shop. 

 I enjoyed making this costume and we are so excited to take Little Red out trick-or-treating tonight (we are all feeling much better, fyi).

Happy Halloween!

This Happened...

...on Monday night. This poor little girl is sick and claimed watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang might just help. Unfortunately, it didn't. Elanor threw up six times throughout the night, as did Tyler and I. Uggghh. Throwing up is possibly one of the worst things humans have to endure. All three of us hardly got any sleep and poor Tyler still had to go to school in the morning. We are doing much better, but I have not been able to get Elanor to eat much. I am hoping we will all be well enough to go trick-or-treating tomorrow, because Elanor has been looking forward to it so much! 

The Weekly Photo

Some photos just look better in black and white.

{hiking in the snow up at Alta}

Three Autumns

This is Elanor's third Autumn, which obviously makes sense as she will be turning three in December. It feels like it has all gone by so fast but at the same time she has changed so much. Here are some pictures of Elanor at the pumpkin patch (it is the same pumpkin patch every year actually) starting at almost 11 months, nearly two and this year being nearly three.  

This little girl is growing up into such a fun, creative, smart and funny little girl.

The Weekly Photo

I was is Oregon (again) from last Thursday to yesterday. Sorry for the lack of posts and for a late Weekly Photo! Elanor and I went back to see the play my mom directed, I did the choreography for and my brother is in, "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Elanor was even able to watch a show, which was super fun. She loved it, was engaged pretty much the whole time and asked many loud questions. It was adorable. When I did plays with my mom, we also did "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and so on the Friday night show a few of those actors came to see this show. It was so fun to watch the play with them and some of them I had not seen in several years! I was sad that more of us were not able to go, but many of them are spread across the U.S. and world (one in England and another in New Zealand). I am so glad I was able to go back for the show, as I miss being involved in theatre so terribly much.

Pumpkin Patch

This is our third year going to this pumpkin patch (more on that on another post) and we love it! It is always a fun time and I look forward to it every year. I just wish I could find a good place to cut down a Christmas tree here.... 

Elanor with her pumpkin!

This picture is so funny to me.

There was a huge corn pit here, which Elanor had a ton of fun playing in!

I love pumpkins and this patch (Petersen Family Farm, if you were wondering) has so many varieties. We all picked out a carving pumpkin, plus I picked out several "decorating" pumpkins. Pumpkins are pretty much my only Halloween/fall decoration--as I do not have many actual decorations. It was a fun evening, plus I made some delicious meat pies for the road (it is a bit of a drive).